The Hardest Work I Have Ever Done

I’ve done a lot of hard work in my life, physical challenges, paid work, voluntary work, likely we all have. 

But the hardest work I have ever done by a country mile is the work I have done on myself in the last 18-24 months.

What am I talking about?

👉 Understanding exactly how and WHY I would continually get in my own way.

👉 Digging into the why behind certain recurring thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

👉 Reframing a lifelong obsession with work and the training of elite athletes.

👉 Cutting away negative energy from my life.

👉 Finally, being honest with myself about where I was contributing to stress and drama in my life.

👉 Stopping the fight against drama, instead removing it and keeping it at arm’s length.

👉 Finally realising that I CAN and NEED to build a career which fits into the life I want to lead.

👉 Identifying and being able to succinctly articulate the career/life I want to lead (to have a enough time and money to spend with the people I love, doing the things I love).

Everyone describes self-work, self-development, self-mastery like peeling the layers on an 🧅. 

But I never thought about the fact that when you peel an onion it gets more and more intense (and teary 😢) the closer to the center you get.

A bit like working on yourself. The closer you get to the route cause of your sticking points, limiting beliefs and behaviours which are no longer serving you, the more uncomfortable it becomes 😩.

My mind played every trick possible to not keep peeling back layers and finding the causes, because it’s uncomfortable, it hurts, it is raw and we are hard wired to take the path of least resistance. 

But that was no longer serving me or moving me towards the life I want to lead. 

I’ve always loved helping people, I have a skill for identifying where opportunities lie for others and precisely which small alterations and reframes can unlock their potential. 

I’ve just always sucked at doing it for myself. I basically spent 36 of my 38 years not being very kind to myself.

But there does come a point where we all need to realise that the work we need the most is the work that we are avoiding. 

What are you avoiding?